In mid-November, the main force of the Exorcising the Dragon Army turned back. Before it reached Wei Commandery, it encountered the first snow of the year.
The snow was light, and the ground had already hardened slightly beforehand, so it did not impede travel... in fact, as the army returned through the snow, morale rose rather than fell, and songs of praise filled the journey.
They really were songs of praise... one moment they sang, "Hebei's snowflakes are as large as hands," and the next, "Ah, illustrious ancestors, behold our achievements." Sometimes, when they saw Zhang Xing riding past on his yellow-brown horse, they even changed the words to, "The Three Radiances and Four Sovereigns have decreed: our Chief must be the Supreme One."
Oh, the atmosphere could not have been better.
Cultured men accompanying the army, such as Feng Chang and Xu Jingzu, were already preparing to record it as some sort of auspicious omen.
When they reached Yecheng, the Dragonheads who had remained behind-Wei Xuanding, Chen Bin, Chai Xiaohe, and the others-led everyone from the Grand Traveling Office and all levels of Yecheng society out to welcome and reward the troops.
The Exorcising the Dragon Gang did not prize elegance-or rather, its members generally came from humble backgrounds, and before unifying Hebei, few of them had understood such things. That saved a great deal of trouble... as always, a simple ceremony was followed by Corridor Dining.
After a victory, nothing suited the occasion better than a hearty feast.
The soldiers returned to their respective battalions with whole pigs, whole sheep, and whole jars of wine, slaughtering the animals and making merry in the camps prepared for them. Each battalion's commander stayed to dine with his soldiers, as did the Agricultural Garrison Department's officers and the Warehousing and Logistics